Pleasure Salon Melbourne and Cyndi Darnell (creator and founder of PSM) are thrilled to present

Tristan Taormino ( USA)

for two nights in Melbourne

Both events require PRE PURCHASE. See links below for access to our tickets through Trybooking.com.au

Tickets can be bought for each event separately or come to both events for a discount

Both venues wheelchair friendly. PLEASE email for further details about this

Wednesday April 11. 2012

Public Seminar

303 Sydney Road ( formerly The Beach)

Brunswick

7.30 pm

Tristan Taormino will take you on her personal journey from activist undergraduate to law school reject to struggling writer to author, Village Voice columnist, On Our Backs editor, sex educator, and adult film director. She’ll reveal the pleasures and pitfalls of a career that revolves around sex.

Hear about her first foray into porn on and off camera, what led her to form her own company, Smart Ass Productions, and become an exclusive director for Vivid Entertainment, one of the largest adult companies. She will share her definition of feminist porn, what she hopes to accomplish with her films, and the challenges she faces in the adult industry and in her professional career as a sex educator. She’ll dish all the juicy details of her adventures along the way with swingers, strippers, dominatrixes, drag kings, porn stars, and even Howard Stern.

Tristan Taormino is an award-winning author, columnist, sex educator, speaker, and filmmaker. She is the author of seven books: Secrets of Great G-Spot Orgasms and Female Ejaculation, The Big Book of Sex Toys, The Anal Sex Position Guide, Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships, True Lust: Adventures in Sex, Porn and Perversion, Down and Dirty Sex Secrets, and two editions of The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women.

She is the editor of 23 anthologies including Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica and was the founding editor of the Lambda Literary Award-winning series Best Lesbian Erotica. She’s written for a multitude of publications from Yale Journal of Law and Feminism to Penthouse, and served as editor of the magazine On Our Backs. For nine and a half years, she wrote a bi-weekly column in The Village Voice. She runs her own adult film production company, Smart Ass Productions, and is currently an exclusive director for Vivid Entertainment.

Tristan has taught hundreds of classes (on everything from negotiating relationships to female orgasms) at conferences, community events, and retail stores and she frequently lectures at top colleges and universities. Tristan has been featured in over 200 publications and appeared on dozens of radio and television programs.

Do open relationships really work? How do people create nontraditional partnerships that are loving and lasting? Tristan Taormino, relationship expert and author of Opening Up, shares some of the key principles that can help your open relationship(s) succeed.

She’ll discuss common issues and problems-from “new relationship energy” and time management to jealousy and agreement violations-and ways to address and resolve them. Tristan will offer tips on communication, negotiation, and boundary setting, as well as how to cope with change. Learn how to get to the root of jealous feelings and transform them by embracing the concept of ‘compersion’.

Whether you’re a newcomer or veteran to the world beyond monogamy, come discover strategies to help you nurture and grow your open relationship(s).

Pleasure Salon Melbourne is back for 2012 with a fabulous variety of sex-positive, sexual health, pleasure and adult information evenings . Our nights still feature Australia’s best sex educators and activists to bring you some of the most up to date and progressive sexuality information available, all in a friendly and welcoming environment.

As you know we have been looking for a new home for some time now, and have finally found one at the gorgeous

February PSM will be trialling a new PANEL format where our guests will be able to engage in dialogue with Cyndi and the audience to explore and detail their experiences as performers and producers of pornographic adult movies.

Our Feb line up includes the gorgeous and articulate Gala known for her pioneering work with FECK, stunning feminist pornster Liandra Dahl anindependent feminist pornographer and blogger who has recently worked with one of the world’s most well known sex educators ( Betty) Dodson and Ross, alongside award winning Australian production company, Adult Voyeur’s very own Bourke Wills.

Gala

Gala is a mutli-purpose sex-positive sex worker who entered the industry through the pornhole. Her career in alternative smutmaking started at a Melbourne-based company Feck ( one of Pleasure Salon Melbourne’s sponsors), and her work appears on its sites ishotmyself.com, beautifulagony.com, ifeelmyself.com, and sonicerotica.com. more recently she has appeared on liandradahl.com, and she is currently preparing to launch a blog journalling her experiences in various facets of the industry.’

Liandra Dahl

Liandra has worked in the alternative pornography industry for 9 years. She first began work with the Australian adult websites run by Feck, ishotmyself.com and beautifulagony.com as a contributor and then as the hostess of their masturbation site ifeelmyself.com between 2003 to 2007. She has also worked with acclaimed European female adult film producers Erika Lust and Jennifer Lyon Bell as a performer. She currently runs her own pansexual independent reality sex site LiandraDahl.com where she performs, produces, films, edits and codes for the whole project and website.

Bourke Wills

Bourke Wills started making high quality, uniquely Australian porn a long time ago as Adult Voyuer. Our first trial shoot was August 2008 and was either a dismal failure or incredibly steep learning curve, depending on which way you look at these things.

We continued shooting, and learning until we felt we had a sufficient backlog of material. We launched the first version of our site in 2010 to a very good reception and relaunched in in 2011 the same year we won the Eros Shine Award for the “Best Australian Adult Website”.

Adult Voyeur continues to grow largely due to the fascination the rest of the world has with Australia and Australian’s eager to see Australian content. We are Australia’s only high production value, top shelf, adult film company and are dedicated to showcasing beautiful Australians having great sex in gorgeous Australian locations. We feel Australian porn as a whole is unique, it is women and couple friendly, empowering, sex positive porn.

In other news……………………………

Starting in March, we will be meeting the FIRST TUESDAY of each month which means our March Salon will be on TUESDAY March 6th, and we will be continuing with TUESDAY gatherings for the rest of 2012 unless we have a special event.

We understand that may mean some of you won’t be able to attend, whilst for others it means a break from the weekend crazies and a day to recover before heading out again. Running such an event we try our best to keep everyone happy, but in the end decisions have to be made, and we hope this change causes as little disappointment and inconvenience as possible

LOOP bar have offered us the residency for the duration of 2012 and we look forward to sampling their fabulous food and drink selection and taking advantage of the fabulous tech set up in addition to the warm embrace of Pleasure Salon Melbourne’s values of open and honest discussion around the importance of pleasure and good sex.

Since previous host venue 24 Moons shut its doors, we have been looking for a new home to host us, and the good people at Tony Starr’s
Kitten Club have kindly offered their premises to us. Fabulous food, full menu and cocktails, we are thrilled and honoured to have access to this wonderful new space. Sadly, this venue is not wheelchair accessible. We are still open to suggestions for a new home, so please send us your ideas for places that

serve food and liquor

have a space for us

have stages, mics, projectors etc.

are wheelchair accessible

and in the CBD

NOVEMBER GATHERING

As you may have been following, we are revamping PSM’s format starting with our November gathering. November brings you 2 special
presenters and a flurry of shenanigans prepared by Cyndi and Christian for your delight. Door prizes a plenty and more interaction for you all.

Summer time start is now 6.30 pm for a 7.15 first presenter.

PRESENTERS;

Jessi Lewis

Melbourne performance artist Jessi Lewis joins us for a presentation like no other.

Exploring what it means to be only 22 and HIV positive, in a world where the death of face to face flirtation is imminent after the rise of Grindr, & what this new technology means for his generation while weaving this in through his own personal story of performance, gay beats, paying rent and moving to Melbourne at age 18.

Having performed Australia wide, Jessi is thrilled to bring us excerpts from his dance pieces, and engage in a Q & A with our audience at PSM.

Melbourne Rope Dojo

Our feedback has told us that you have all been VERY keen to know more about rope play and we have found you one of Australia’s best rope
instructors; Melbourne Rope Dojo!

The head instructor at the Melbourne Rope Dojo is Scott, one of the most experienced practitioners of Shibari outside of Japan. Scott started studying Shibari in 2004, which lead him to visit Japan starting in 2009 to continue his studies. He has been to Japan three times now to study under his Sensei, Osada Steve, and one of Osada Steve’s teachers, Yukimura Haruki-Sensei.

Whilst experienced in all aspects of Shibari, Scott has a particular love of newaza, or the intimate and connected tying typically performed on the floor. For Scott, the connection that can be achieved through rope is unique and forms the heart of Shibari. There is therefore an emphasis at the Dojo of learning how to obtain this connection.

Scott will be providing a demonstration of his work, along with a full suspension demonstration and a history of Shibari (Japanese
Rope Work).

Our June gathering of Pleasure Salon Melbourne went off with a bang as Christian and friends wowed the crowd with their saucy, humorous and touching films about sex workers by sex workers. Door prizes from Bliss for Women, FECK and Adult Matchmaker marched out the door with more to come at our July Gathering. ( see details below)

Erotica, sexy, steamy, and a little bit naughty tonight we will titilate your tastebuds with what we do, let you see into the world of how we do it and why.

With our varied backgrounds and influences, we all have a story to tell – it’s just that the telling might take you on a twisted journey or two …. ready for the ride?

Come along with erotica author KL Joy & her friends and discover the world of erotica.

KL (Kyra-Ly) fell into writing accidentally about 7 years ago. Having been out and about on the BDSM Melbourne Scene for a number of years, it took her own Catalyst of being dragged along to a private play party to prompt her to begin writing. She self published that first book Catalyst: Stories of Awakening in 2009 and took it to the BDSM community that had inspired her. The support she got from with in the community was fabulous, but the surprising market were the housewives of suburbia who devoured that book and went on to look for others! To their delight, and many others, the second book Desire: Stories of Secret Longing is soon to be released!

Geoffrey Knight has been writing novels for 12 years, but found his greatest success when he switched from traditional mainstream genres to writing gay male erotica 4 years ago. In that time he has written seven gay fiction titles, two of which reached number one on Amazon’s Gay Fiction best-seller lists in the U.S., France and Canada. His latest gay best-seller, THE CURSE OF THE DRAGON GOD, will be released in the U.S. early July, and will be launched in Sydney later in the month.

Eva Sless is a Melbourne-based freelance writer who specialises in sex-journalism. She is a former (although still occasional) sex worker who began her writing career with a “Belle Du Jour” type column in Australian People Magazine. The column, Sophie Loves Sex, highlighting some of the more quirky and positive sides of the sex industry. With a blend of humour and a down-to-earth, chatty tone, Eva’s column was one of the most popular and longest running of its kind. Currently, Eva is a regular contributor to Mother and Baby magazine, providing useful information and humorous anecdotes for new parents about sex and relationships. She is currently working on her own book based on all the sex-related experiences she has had.

Aimee Nichols is an award-winning author whose erotic fiction has appeared in a number of anthologies including The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 6, Got a Minute?: Sixty Second Erotica, First Timers: True Stories of Lesbian Awakening, Sixteen of the Best,and Ultimate Lesbian Erotica 2006. Her writing has also appeared in magazines and online. She was an editor of Eroticus magazine, and has always related more strongly to Rizzo than to Sandy.

WHEN: Monday July 4th
Doors open for drinks, nibbles and mingling at 6pm
Speakers start at 7.30

May Pleasure Salon Melbourne was the beginning of our Wintery series of presentations, featuring the expertise of the delightful Uma and her approach to Tantra and Expanded Erotic Consciousness. Big big thanks to Uma for coming all the way from Brisbane to share her knowledge and passion with us! We HEART you!

Our gatherings just seem to keep growing and growing, thanks to all of you. Be sure to join our mailing list for regular updates and info on our sex-positive gatherings in Melbourne.

THANKS MELBOURNE

Pleasure Salon Melbourne only exists with your energy and participation, so the Pleasure Salon Melbourne organisers are deeply grateful to each and every one of our attendees, WE LOVE YOU…… and the fabulous support of our host venue 24 Moons, our provider of door prizes Bliss 4 Women and ALSO Foundation for our flyers.

NEW SPONSOR: NEW DOOR PRIZE

We are also thrilled to announce the support of FECK, creator of Beautiful Agony, I Shot Myself and I Feel Myself for their generous contribution. Starting in June, FECK and Pleasure Salon Melbourne will be giving away one online membership each month to one lucky Pleasure Salon Melbourne attendee.

DO YOU WANT TO HELP PSM ?

Being a community based organisation, PSM is always appreciative of any sponsorship that can be provided to assist with maintaining PSM and the contributions we make to making Australia a brighter and more sex-positive place to live. Should you or your business like to be part of this, please email us.

Overwhelmingly, dramatic performances, research articles and media portrayals make the most of the misery and desperation experienced by some people who do sex work. It’s unsurprisingly rare that these stories are told by actual sex workers. Instead, audiences are fed faceless images, caricatures that perpetuate stereotypes and stigma against sex workers and stymie the progress of our human rights.

In June, Pleasure Salon Melbourne would like to change that. With the assistance of Zero One Zero, a community digital story telling collective, a group of sex workers were given the tools and skills to express themselves through the medium of film. Pleasure Salon Melbourne will be screening some of these short films:

Name: Lover & Fighter

About: Made with the intention to de-mystify political contradictions and celebrate sex work’s positive impact on my life to those around me i have difficulty explaining it to.

Name: Whore Pride

About My Film: It’s about the latest challenges I faced as I took sex work into 3 arenas many consider too taboo for it to go: Family, Politics and Relationships.

Name: You are Me

About My Film: My film brings to the fore the double life I feel I’ve had to live due to the stigma associated with sex work

A Q&A session with their makers will follow the screening of these films.

Sex worker, Health Service Provider, Activist; Christian (aka: Tyson Quorren-Smith amongst other aliases) has been involved with sex work for the past 12 years. Christian has worked in a number of health and community responses for sex workers and other socially excluded peoples. He currently works at RhED (Resourcing Health and Education in the Sex Industry), as the Health Education and Support Worker for Male and Trans* Sex Workers in Victoria and co-ordinates the Hustling 2 Health Program, a peer based, after hours drop-in service for street sex workers. As a sex worker activist, Christian has taken on a number of roles. He is a highly active member of Vixen, the Victorian Sex Industry Network, a social support group entirely constituted of sex workers who seek to provide a voice for Victorian sex workers. Christian is also the elected National Representative of Male Sex Workers by the Scarlet Alliance, the Australian sex worker association. Alongside this experience, Christian sex work career spans many contexts from street work to escort agency work to private work with special needs clients. Highly versatile, either being the boy next door or the boy your mama warned you about, Christian has well-practiced skills in physical, intellectual and sensory satisfaction.

Our April gathering covering the big questions about Swinging, proved to be a very popular night. Thanks again to our fab host venue 24 Moons, and our guest speaker Chantelle Austin who gave away copies of her book, along with a personal coaching voucher valued at over $300! Congratulations to all our lucky winners of Chantelle’s prizes, and our other gifts from Bliss 4 Women.

Also, be sure to check out the page about 24Moons Wheelchair Accessunder our ‘pages‘ listing, should you require wheelchair access.

As I write this it’s wet and cold outside….a perfect time to get all comfy and tuned into our May presentation.

An exploration of Tantra, Spiritual Sex and Expanded Erotic Consciousness

Our May presenter, Uma, joins us from Brisbane. She has spent most of her working life in the pleasure industry, earning her living as a Sacred Intimate while exploring different approaches to sensuality and sexuality. There are many names for these sacred teachers and erotic explorers- Tantrika, Dakini, Sacred Prostitute, Sacred Intimate. All of these titles are relevant to her work and she wears them with pride.

Uma has been trained in Tantra, Shamanism and Taoism and is a Certified Sexological Bodyworker . She has found her path in life teaching people of all genders and sexual orientations the art and mysteries of sacred sexuality, and is thrilled to bring her knowledge and passion to speak in Melbourne for the very first time.

Along with her partner, she started studying the Tantric arts 8 years ago as a way to bring their relationship closer together . It ended up being much more profound experience than either of them could have imagined, which continues to lead them today through an ever-changing exploration of a mystical world of sensuality, heart connection and the Divine.

Uma’s presentation will explore and explain the history of Tantra as a spiritual philosophy in ancient India and how it is as relevant, important and meaningful today as it was in days gone by. Drawing on influences from other spiritual disciplines including Taoism from China and Shamanism from the Americas, Uma will give an overview of how these ancient secrets can be applied to modern-day sexuality and enhance contemporary sexual relationships between all orientations and genders.
Uma’s presentation at Pleasure Salon Melbourne will cover topics including:

Maureen Matthews, best known as The Age’s resident sex columnist & advisor, and author of The Sunday Age’s About Last Night, pops in to Pleasure Salon Melbourne in March to share her wisdom and expertise, and help us celebrate our official 1st birthday!

Maureen Matthews grew up as an English vicar’s daughter. At the age of sixteen, her family emigrated to Australia; and at the age of 23 she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease. Despite this, Maureen went on to complete a B A with Honours in English Literature and a Diploma of Education, as well as raise 3 sons.

In 1995 she was looking for a new challenge. She realised that all the commercial ventures to do with sex were aimed at men, were sleazy, and offered little for women and men in intimate relationships. Her own personal experiences blending a sex life with long-term relationship and family life, combined with the personal effects of her disability, inspired her to offer a tasteful, informative and intelligent alternative to the sex shops at the time. She decided to open BLISS – Australia’s first adult shop, exclusively for women.

Now an online store, bliss4women.com is acknowledged by health professionals, counsellors, and other support groups as an invaluable resource for all people wanting to explore their sensual selves.

‘Maintaining a ‘real’ sex life in the ‘real’ world’.

Maureen’s presentation at Pleasure Salon Melbourne will draw on her vast life experience, professional experience running a woman-positive and sex-positive sex shop, and the nature of many of the more popular enquiries to her column. Whilst Maureen’s talk will focus heavily on women, hetero partners of women, or men interested in women’s pleasures are more than encouraged to attend! (In fact, we insist!!!!)

Maureen will be discussing sex toys for women, woman & couple-friendly erotic DVDs, and erotic literature, all of which focus on how women, and couples in long-term relationships are often looking for something different to what is generally offered by mainstream sex shops.

Topics covered will include:

Assisting new mums, post-menopausal women, and bored couples with re-invigorating their sex lives

Dilemmas of long-term relationships and how to negotiate them

Ways that women can enhance their pleasure, kick-start their libido, and continue / start to enjoy sex

Strap-on sex between women / and /or their male partners

Anal sex, bondage play and other taboos that have started to move into the mainstream